thesis submission mcmaster

Completing your Degree

• 1 Have you completed all the course requirements?
• 2 Permission to Write
• 3 Planning your Defense
• 4 Remote Defenses
• 5 A new accelerated PhD Defense process
• 6 The Masters defense is organized within the department
• 7 NEW: Urkund thesis scanning requirement
• 8 Faculty, are you chairing a defense?

Have you completed all the course requirements?

You will want to have completed all your program requirements when it comes time to initiate your PhD defense. From section 4.3 Thesis in the graduate calendar: "Please note that thesis defences may not be initiated until all other degree requirements, including comprehensive examinations, have been completed."

Thus, ideally, you will have completed all your Course Requirements BEFORE the beginning of the last term in which you will be initiating your PhD defense. Occasionally, a student will be registered in a required course in the same term that they are initiating their PhD defense. As long as the student is enrolled in the course in the term in which they initiate, missing the grade would not prevent the student from initiating a PhD defense. However, when it comes time to clear the student to graduate they won’t be cleared if the grade is still missing.

• Note that for RCT stream students, you will be registered in PSYCH 761 (Clinical Internship) in your final year. This is a full-year course spanning the fall, winter, and summer terms of your final year. This course is a requirement of your program, thus section 4.3 in the Graduate Calendar applies. You will not be able to initiate your PhD defense until the summer term of that year.

Think about your Plan of Study early and make sure you complete all requirements in good time.

Very Important: Check the status of your transcripts in lots of time before your defense! If there are any errors, talk to Anju Dalal (PNB Graduate Administrative Assistant) ASAP. We cannot change transcripts from within the department, all changes must be submitted with proper paperwork to School of Graduate Studies. This can take time. Our program is too large for us to be able to monitor individual student transcripts; it is your responsibility to bring any errors to us in time for corrections to be made through SGS. Incorrect transcripts can delay completion of your degree.

Permission to Write

Once students have completed all course work, passed their comprehensive exams (in the case of PhD thesis), and collected all their thesis data, with approval of their supervisory committee they may be awarded permission to write. This is not a necessary requirement of the program, but provides the student with a formal document of approval from the committee that no additional data are needed to write the dissertation.

• Permission to Write form for Master's students
• Permission to Write form for PhD students

Planning your Defense

Apologies for the use of both spellings on this site: "defense" and "defence".

Instructions for both Masters and PhD thesis and defense preparation is provided on the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) website in a set of tabs and documents:

• Guides to completing your degree : select the PhD or the Masters tile.

This document will guide you through the appropriate formatting required to successfully submit your thesis for upload by McMaster University Libraries to MacSPHERE:

• Guide for the preparation of masters and doctoral theses
• MacSPHERE allows your work to be available internationally and offers you statistics on how often your thesis is accessed.
• SGS also offers a link to Lehmann Bindery where you can submit an electronic copy, should you wish hard copies to be bound for your own use.

Remote Defenses

Remote defenses during the coronavirus pandemic have been going very well. There are some guidelines for PhD defenses provided by the School of Graduate Studies (these can be adopted for Masters defenses):

• The PhD Defence Chair Package is distributed by SGS to PhD Defence Chairs, along with the relevant forms, prior to the defence:
• PhD-Defence-Chair-Package.pdf
• The Chair Procedure Guidelines for Online Defences was approved by SGS in May 2020:
• Chair Procedure Guidelines for Online Defences
• Also provided are a few scenarios you might encounter during an online defence (e.g. an examining member loses internet) and what to do:
• Chair Procedure Guidelines for Online Defences - Scenarios

A new accelerated PhD Defense process

(instructions for supervisors and administrators)

• Initiate PhD Defense – July 6
• 1-2 weeks Approvals from Committee members and department on External Nominee - July 6 - 20
• Thesis sent to External – July 20
• External Examiner needs 2-3 weeks to read the thesis and submit the report – July 20 - Aug 10
• External Examiner Report due at least one week before the defense – Aug 10
• PhD Defense Date – August 17
• Upload final thesis to MacSphere well before the deadline (it takes time to process them all so if there is an urgent need to clear (e.g. for a job) position, you can request it via email to [email protected] and use URGENT CTG in the title). Make sure to schedule your defense date so that you have enough time to complete edits and upload to MacSphere before the deadline (refer to Sessional Dates in the Graduate Calendar).

This is a new set of instructions shared by School of Graduate Studies for the accelerated PhD Defense process:

• Accelerated PhD Defence Process (file date March 2020)

This flowchart helps conceptualize the path to the defense (I think we could improve this flowchart, if anyone wants to volunteer for that, let me know):

• PhD Defense Flowchart

The Masters defense is organized within the department

• Make sure you initiate the intent to initiate a defense on Mosaic. This is very important because it gets you into the SGS computer system.
• Completing your Master's degree - Thesis on the School of Graduate Studies pages
• Section 3.3 in the Graduate Calendar (2021-2022)
• Masters Defense Forms

Masters Defense Chair: It is the department's responsibility to find a chair/external examiner for the defense. We ask that supervisors help with this task. This means that students should ask their supervisors to find a chair.

Masters Defense External Examiner:

• This can be the chair or someone else inside or outside of the department. The main thing is that is not someone who is on the committee. We ask that supervisors help with this task. This means that students should ask their supervisors to find your external if the chair does not agree to be the external.

How much time do they need to read my thesis?

Note for students who are promoted to PhD but wish to defend a Masters along the way:

The School of Graduate Studies has prepared a letter for external examiners of PhD defenses that addresses potential COVID-related delays.

• SGS will include [ this letter as part of the regular package sent to all external examiners of PhD defenses .
• Students who have been affected by COVID-related delays can also explain, within the thesis itself, how COVID-related restrictions affected particular chapters. A good place for this might be at the beginning of the data chapter, along with other information such as the student's own contributions to multi-author published or submitted work.

NEW: Urkund thesis scanning requirement

• Guidelines for Supervisors for using the iThenticate scanning software
• iThenticate FAQ
• Steps involve in writing thesis
• McMaster's Research Plagiarism Checking Policy
• The relevant paragraph in the calendar is: "Prior to the thesis defence and, in the case of a doctoral thesis, before sending out the draft to the external examiner, the entire document must be reviewed for its originality using the University’s paid subscription to iThenticate. The program/supervisor will review the originality report generated by iThenticate and either recommend changes to the document or approve it for the defence. A thesis may not be seen by the thesis examining committee (including the external reviewer in the case of a doctoral thesis) until the iThenticate generated report was reviewed and approved by the supervisor or the program, unless authorized by the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies."

Faculty, are you chairing a defense?

These instructions are included in the PhD defense chair's package, and can be useful for both PhD and masters defense chairs. See above topics for guidelines for online defenses during COVID.

Navigation menu

Faculty of Science

School of computational science & engineering, purpose of this handbook.

This handbook contains practical information about graduate studies in the School of Computational Science & Engineering at McMaster University. This information is a brief summary of information that should be helpful for new and returning graduate students.

Disclaimer : The Graduate Calendar is the primary authority on the graduate policy. In the event that the advice in this Handbook differs from the Graduate Calendar, the Graduate Calendar prevails.

Information Box Group

Dr. Benjamin Bolker, Director

Email:  [email protected]

Hanadi Attar-Elbard, Graduate Administrative Assistant HH-218 Email:  [email protected]

CSE At A Glance

The McMaster School of Computational Science and Engineering is an equal partnership between the Faculties of Science, Engineering, and Business, with outreach to the Faculty of Health Science. The School offers students the opportunity to undertake interdisciplinary research and education programs that leverage McMaster’s internationally renowned expertise in computation and its applications in science, engineering and business.

A significant fraction of funding for research at McMaster University comes from industrial support. To the potential graduates, research in any of the Computational Science & Engineering research fields will provide not only in-depth training in topics that require advanced computational skills, but will also expose students to cutting edge, industrially relevant multidisciplinary training. This combination will provide access to the industrial and academic job markets of the future.

Graduate Study At McMaster University

As a graduate student, there are important university policies and documents you should familiarize yourself with. These can be found at:

• Graduate Studies Helpful Links

Just as the University has responsibilities to graduate students, students have responsibilities to the University. The student’s responsibilities include, but are not limited to; registering annually until graduation, withdrawal, or withdrawal in good standing due to time limit; paying fees as required; and complying with the regulations of the School of Graduate Studies as set out in the School of Graduate Studies Calendar.

Where applicable, students are responsible for complying with such conditions as may be laid out in an accepted letter of offer. Students are also responsible for complying with the regulations of the Ontario Council of Graduate Studies, and McMaster University with respect to full-time and part-time status and in particular, for informing the School of Graduate Studies of any change in employment status.

Students are further responsible for informing the School of Graduate Studies, which acts as the official keeper of student records, of any change in personal information such as address name, telephone number, etc. Students are also responsible for reporting through the department any change in student status, course registration, or withdrawal. With regard to research and study, students are responsible for maintaining contact and meeting regularly with the faculty advisor, thesis/project supervisor or supervisory committee, for observing departmental guidelines, and for meeting the deadlines of the department and the School of Graduate Studies.

If there is a problem with supervision, it is the student’s responsibility to contact the Director of the School, after reviewing the general regulations of the School of Graduate Studies . Students who undertake to write Master’s or doctoral theses assume responsibility both for creating drafts of the thesis and for responding to direction from the Supervisory Committee. The student shall have the responsibility to write and ultimately to defend the thesis, and the Supervisory Committee has the responsibility to offer guidance in the course of the endeavour, and to recommend or not recommend the completed thesis for defence.

In order to receive a degree, the student must fulfill all departmental or program requirements and all University regulations, including those of the School of Graduate Studies. Students who have outstanding financial accounts at the end of the academic year will not receive their academic results, diplomas, or transcripts.

Since registration permits access to libraries and certain other academic facilities it also implies a commitment on the part of each graduate student to use such facilities in accordance with applicable rules.

Full-time students are obliged to be on campus, except for vacation periods or authorized off-campus status, for all three terms of the university Year. Any absence of one week or longer from campus which is not part of the student’s vacation entitlement requires the supervisor’s approval. (As specified in the graduate calendar , students are entitled to two weeks of vacation per year in addition to statutory holidays and the December-January midwinter closure.) Students who are away from campus for more than two weeks require approval from the Director. Absences of more than 4 weeks require additional permission from the appropriate Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. Students may arrange, through the Department and the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, to be “full-time off-campus” for periods of up to a year. In cases of unauthorized absence the student will be deemed to have withdrawn voluntarily from graduate study and will have to petition for readmission. No guarantee of readmission or of renewal of financial arrangements can be made.

Leaves Of Absence

Leaves of absence are normally granted on a term-by-term basis and, whenever possible, should commence at the beginning of a term (i.e., January 1, May 1, or September 1). During the period of a Leave the student cannot expect to be given supervision or be entitled to use the University’s facilities. During a Leave of Absence no tuition will be charged nor will the student be eligible for any scholarship support. The length of time for completing the degree and for eligibility for scholarship support will be extended by the duration of the Leave on the resumption of studies. Leaves of Absence affecting Teaching Assistantship duties are covered by the Collective Agreement with Local 3906 (Unit 1) of the Canadian Union of Public employees.

Students should be aware that in the event of Leaves of Absence continuation of the same research project and/or supervisor cannot be guaranteed.

Visa students who take a leave of absence of longer than 150 days should be aware that this will require them to change their immigration status (see the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship web page ); they should also discuss the ramifications of taking a leave with an immigration advisor at the Student Success Centre .

Reasons For Leaves Of Absence

A Leave of Absence for up to one year is permitted for reasons of illness or for reasons related to family responsibilities such as pregnancy and child rearing.

Students who have successfully completed at least one full year in a graduate program may apply for a Leave of Absence for up to one year for other personal circumstances provided that the student’s supervisor and the department support the request.

Graduate Studies In Computational Science And Engineering

Course listing.

The complete list of graduate courses in the School of Computational Science and Engineering can be found at

• Graduate Study Courses

Courses offered in a given term are listed on Mosaic.

Graduate students should make their course selection after consulting with their research supervisor.

Required Course For All Graduate Students

All graduate students must complete and pass SGS 101 –  Academic Research Integrity and Ethics  within the first 12 months after their admission. The purpose of this course is to ensure that the standards and expectations of academic integrity and research ethics are communicated and understood by students

All graduate students are also required to complete and pass SGS 201 –  Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) , which can be completed online ( www.mcmaster.ca/accessibility ).

Students may not graduate or register in subsequent academic years without having successfully completed these courses.

Computational Science And Engineering Student Symposium

The School of Computational Science and Engineering sponsors a student symposium during which students currently registered in the Masters and Ph.D. programs give presentations about their work. Attendance of all registered Masters and Ph.D. students in the Computational Science and Engineering program is required. Students are also required to present one seminar on the research they have carried out while enrolled in the program.

Master’s Program

The Master’s programs emphasize industry-relevant academic research and development. The degree may be earned either with a thesis option (M.A.Sc. when the supervisor is from the Faculty of Engineering and M.Sc. when the supervisor is from the Faculty of Science or the deGroote School of Business) or by a project option (M.Eng. when the supervisor is from the Faculty of Engineering and M.Sc. when the supervisor is from the Faculty of Science or the deGroote School of Business), to be decided jointly by the candidate and the supervisor and approved by the Director of the School.

The maximum time for completion of the degree is three (3) years from initial registration, 5 years for part-time students.

M.A.Sc. & M.Sc. Thesis

A candidate for a Master’s degree with thesis is required to successfully complete a minimum of four half courses with an average of at least B- and successfully defend a thesis. Two of the four half courses must normally be chosen from the two core courses (CSE 700 and 701) offered by the School. The remaining two half courses are normally chosen from the list of the courses approved by the School. One of the courses may be at the 600-level where appropriate. Additional courses beyond the minimum four may be required by the Director, in consultation with the supervisor. The thesis topic is to be chosen in consultation with the supervisor. The School arranges a series of seminars; candidates are required to attend and participate, and may be required to present their research results as part of this series. Normally, the thesis-based program is completed within 20 months of full time study. It is expected that many students will choose this route towards a Ph.D. degree.

Master’s Thesis

The administration of the Master’s thesis defence is the responsibility of the School. The School recommends that the thesis follow the format described by Graduate Studies in their booklet “Guide for the Preparation of Theses”. The student is responsible for ensuring that the format satisfies the University requirements. The sequence of events is as follows:

• The student’s supervisor provides permission to prepare a thesis. The student is responsible for submitting a thesis, which is reasonably free of grammatical, typographical and technical errors. If the thesis is found to contain an excessive number of errors, it will be returned to the student and the oral examination postponed until a satisfactory thesis has been submitted.
• The student’s supervisor(s) and two other faculty members, from at least two different faculties, sit as an examining committee for the candidate. One of the three committee members will act as Chair for the examination committee.
• The committee will be approved by the Director. The Administrator will prepare the appropriate forms and provide them to the Chair of the examination committee.

M.Eng. & M.Sc. With Project

A candidate for a Master’s degree with project is required to successfully complete a minimum of six half courses with an average of at least B- plus a research project. The project is to be decided jointly by the candidate and the supervisor, and approved by the Director. Of the six half courses, three must be the core courses (CSE 700, CSE 701, and CSE 780 or CSE 745 or 746), whereas the remaining three courses may be chosen from those listed by the School, in consultation with the project supervisor. Candidates who can show they have satisfactorily completed coursework that covers the material of one or more of the core courses may make a request to the Director to substitute other courses. Up to two of the half courses may be at the 600-level. The School arranges a series of seminars; candidates are required to attend and participate, and may be required to present their research results as part of this series. Normally, this option will require 16 months residence. This option is not a preferred qualification for entrance to a Ph.D. program.

Students in the project M.Eng. and M.Sc, program will need to prepare a report on the research topic formulated by the Supervisor. It is expected that most of the reports will be at least 40 pages long (in the McMaster standard thesis format) and will provide an overview of the theoretical background for the problem (including a survey of the state-of-the-art literature) and describe the computational solution of the problem supported with suitable results. The report will be reviewed by the student’s Supervisor and one more CSE faculty member from a department different than the Supervisor. After completion of the review, a copy of the project together with the reviews will be forwarded to the Administrator for Departmental files.

Transfer From M.A.Sc. Or M.Sc. To Ph.D. Without Completion Of Master’s Thesis

Students enrolled in the M.A.Sc. and M.Sc. program may be transferred to the Ph.D. program prior to the completion of the Master’s degree. Transfer to the Ph.D. without completion of the Masters is intended to expedite the student’s progress towards the Ph.D. by not requiring the preparation of the formal Master’s thesis and allowing the research carried out during enrollment in the Master’s program to be used in the Ph.D. thesis. The expectation for transfer to Ph.D. is that the research progress at the Masters level should be exemplary. The candidate will be expected to have completed a minimum of two (2) half courses with a grade average of B+ or better. The possibility of transfer to Ph.D. should be discussed by the student and the research supervisor early in the Master’s program and then the following procedure should be followed:

• After a minimum of 2 complete terms in the Master’s program at McMaster students may request in writing to the Director to be transferred to the Ph.D. program.
• The Director will then appoint an Examining Committee comprising of two (2) faculty members, in addition to the student’s research supervisor(s).
• The student will provide four (4) copies of a formal written transfer report, which summarizes the student’s research work to date, to the School office no later than ten (10) days before the scheduled examination date.

The transfer report is not a thesis and need not follow the Master’s thesis preparation requirements since the report will not be kept for archival purposes. The maximum length is 25 single-spaced pages. The transfer report must address the following:

• Definition of the research problem.
• Brief critical review of the relevant literature.
• Summary of the completed work including. The summary must clearly show the Examining Committee some contribution to research.
• Scope of the completed work as a basis for future Ph.D. studies. The emphasis is on research progress and completed work and not on the research plan for the Ph.D.
• The examination will consist of an oral presentation, 20-30 minutes in duration, summarizing the research progress to date. The candidate will then have a session of questioning by the Examining Committee members only.
• The Examining Committee will evaluate the student’s course standings, transfer report, oral presentation of the research progress and the answers provided during the examination.

The outcome of the examination is that the School recommends to the Committee on Graduate Admissions and Study one of the following:

• admission to Ph.D. studies following completion of the requirements of the Master’s degree
• admission to Ph.D. studies without completion of a Master’s program
• admission to Ph.D. studies but with concurrent completion of all requirements for a Master’s degree within one calendar year from the date of reclassification
• refusal of admission to Ph.D. studies

Ph.D. Program

The general regulations for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy appear in the Graduate Calendar. Students with a Master’s degree equivalent to the Master’s degree with thesis option at the School of Computational Science and Engineering are required to take two 700 level half (i.e., three-credit) courses. Students who previously earned a Master’s degree at a relevant program are required to take a total of four half-courses, of which at least three must be at the 700 level. Students entering into the Ph.D. program directly from a bachelor’s degree, or transferring into the Ph.D. program without completing the Master’s degree are required to take a total of six half- courses, of which at least four must be at the 700 level.

During their course of study, doctoral candidates will have to pass a Comprehensive Examination of the School. The purpose of this examination is to ensure that the candidate possesses sufficient knowledge and maturity in computational science and engineering. The Comprehensive Examination is given in two parts.

The maximum time for completion of the degree is seven (7) years from initial registration, 8 years for part-time students.

Supervisory Committee

In accordance with the regulations of the School of Graduate Studies (Sections 1.2.4, 2.6 and 4.5 of the Graduate Calendar), all Ph.D. students will have a Supervisory Committee which should meet at least once every year and provide the student with feedback regarding his/her coursework and research. A report from the meeting must be submitted to the Administrator before August 31. In keeping with the interdisciplinary character of the CSE program, it is expected that at least one member of the Supervisory Committee will be from a different Faculty than the student’s Supervisor. If this is not feasible, then this member should be chosen from a different department within the same Faculty. The Director can provide advice on the composition of the Supervisory Committee.

Composition Of The Examination Committee

The examination committee consists of the student’s supervisory committee plus one additional member whose area is relevant to the examination topic. Suggestions for the additional member will be provided by the supervisory committee and approved by the Director. During its initial meeting the examination committee will also determine its Chair.

Comprehensive Examinations For Ph.D. Students

In accord with Section 4.3 of the Graduate Calendar, during their course of study doctoral candidates will have to pass a Comprehensive Examination, whose purpose is to ensure that the candidate possesses sufficient knowledge and maturity in computational science and engineering. Both parts of this examination normally take place between 12 and 20 months (but no later than 24 months) after the start of the program, and are scheduled by the supervisory committee at a mutually convenient time.

The Comprehensive Examination is in two parts.

Part I is an oral examination designed to test the student’s breadth of knowledge; their understanding of computational sciences and engineering; their ability in critical thinking; and their ability to synthesize and integrate ideas from within and peripheral to their research area.

The examination committee will meet to determine a topic related to, but peripheral to the candidate’s intended research topic. The choice of topic may be made in consultation with the Director. (See example part I topics from past comprehensive exams.)

Once the candidate receives the topic, they will have four weeks to review the state of art on the specified areas, write a maximum 20 page report surveying these areas and identify one to three interesting open problems, without the aid of any other individual. An official letter is sent to the candidate outlining the proposal topic, examination procedures and guidelines. The oral examination will take place two weeks after submission of the report. The examination will include an oral presentation, not more than 20 minutes in length, followed by a question period from the examination committee. The total examination will normally be 2 hours in length, but no more than 3 hours. At the end of Part I an interim form, which can be obtained from the Administrator, should be returned to the School.

Part II takes the form of a written research proposal and an oral examination designed to examine the student’s understanding of, and approach to, their proposed dissertation research topic. Formulation of the dissertation topic shall be done in consultation with the Supervisor. Both parts of the examination may be repeated once.

After completion of both part of the exam, the Comprehensive Examination Results form is to be completed by the Chair and submitted together with the student’s report to the Director for approval in accordance with regulations of the School of Graduate Studies. The completed form and report are then submitted to the Administrator who will forward both to Graduate Studies and update the candidate’s departmental file.

Ph.D. Thesis

Students submitting a PhD thesis must follow the procedures described in the Graduate Calendar. In particular, authorization of the Supervisory Committee must be obtained before preparing the final version of the thesis, and the format of the typed thesis should be exactly as specified in the “Guide for the Preparation of Theses” (linked below). The Supervisory Committee must also approve the final version of the thesis for submission.

Once approved by the Supervisory committee, the thesis is submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, which will then arrange the Oral Thesis Defence and appoint an external examiner, based on recommendations submitted by the Supervisory Committee. Students must submit their theses by the appropriate deadline given in the Graduate Calendar in order to be able to graduate at a particular convocation.

The Oral Defence normally cannot be held between July 1 and the first Monday in September.

Information about preparing the written thesis:

• Completing your Masters degree – Thesis
• Writing your doctoral thesis

Information about the PhD oral defence process:

• PhD Thesis Defence Process

Travel And Conference Funding

CSE does not provide funding for conference and other travel. Students should discuss other sources of travel funding directly with their supervisors.

Skills Training And Other Resources

The School of Graduate Studies and the MacPherson Institute offer a wide range of skills training modules and workshops. Topics including Academic writing, academic job search, teaching and many others.

Please try to take advantage of this opportunity to build up your skill set and set yourself up to succeed in your future careers.

• Career and Professional Development
• Teaching & Learning Certificates of Completion Program
• McMaster Children & Youth University
• CSE Form: Comprehensive Examination – Part 1
• SGS Form: Comprehensive Results to be Recorded on Graduate Student Transcript
• SGS Form: PhD Supervisory Committee Meeting Report

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

11 Defending and Submitting the Thesis

(1) the thesis defense.

• Review the degree completion review process [https://gs.mcmaster.ca/current-students/completing-your-degree/] for your specific degree. This will provide information on how to initiate the thesis defense process on Mosaic.
• Once you have initiated the defense process, your supervisor, committee members, and/or department will submit nominees for external examiners.
• After initiating the defense, y ou will receive an email confirming you were successful.  Allow some time for Mosaic to send you this email.  If you don’t receive it by the morning of the next day email [email protected] for help. Your committee and supervisors must also approve the date and thesis. The thesis will then be sent to the chosen external examiner.
• You will receive a report from the external examiner before your defense date.
• At the defense, a chair will guide the proceedings. Usually, the doctoral candidate will have 15 to 20 minutes to outline the major findings and implications of their thesis research, followed by a round of questions from the external, then the committee, and then a second round of questions. When all are satisfied, the student will leave the room and the committee and examiner will deliberate.

Did you know?

You may invite guests to observe your defense proceedings – even guests from outside of academia.  You have worked hard and should have your community there to celebrate with you.  Depending on the set-up of the room in which you defend, guests should sit at the back or around the sides of the room.  The front (or main defense table in the formal thesis defense room) is reserved for the chair of the defense, your supervisor and committee members, the external, and yourself.

Defense preparation suggestions

The following poster provides six suggestions for preparing for a successful defense. This poster offers valuable guidance for preparing and navigating a thesis defense, emphasizing the importance of self-confidence, pre-defense preparation, remaining composed during the process, delivering a well-prepared presentation, handling feedback graciously, and managing the flow of the conversation to ensure a successful and productive defense experience.

(2) What happens after the defense?

There are two types of successful defense outcomes:

• No changes required. The thesis needs no further changes. Your supervisor must sign off before final submission.
• Minor changes required. The thesis requires minor changes (typographical errors; minor corrections). The supervisor acts on behalf of the defense committee to ensure that all required changes have been made.

It is unusual for a thesis to come out of the defense process without at least some minor revisions, so expect to have at least a little bit of post-defense work to do.

Go to the Phoenix Restaurant [https://www.phoenixmcmaster.com/] on campus after successfully defending and you will be able to drink from “the chalice” and receive a free pitcher of beer in celebration!

Submitting your thesis to MacSpere

Once the final copy of your thesis has been approved, it needs to be submitted to MacSphere  [https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/]. For your e-thesis to be published via MacSphere, the final version of your thesis should be named using the following file naming convention:

familyname_firstname_middleinitial_finalsubmissionyearmonth_degree

Only upload your thesis and any related appendices. Don’t upload your final submission sheet, licences, or anything that isn’t your thesis.  AND you may request up to a one year embargo on your thesis.  Your thesis won’t be available to the public until the embargo expires.  Request an embargo on your Final Submission sheet.   Whether or not you asked for an embargo, your thesis won’t be immediately available on MacSphere when you hit Submit.  SGS will review your upload and your Final Submission Sheet and will apply an embargo if you asked for one.

The Final Thesis Submission Sheet [downloadable PDF] must also be signed and submitted to the School of Graduate Studies .

Tip: In order to facilitate the administrative process, the thesis coordinator suggests that you submit your e-thesis to MacSphere first, before submitting the submission sheet to the School of Graduate Studies.

Pay attention to the thesis submission due dates listed in the Sessional Calendar to avoid submitting late and being charged partial tuition for an additional semester.

For further questions and assistance regarding the thesis defense and submission process, please email [email protected] .

McMaster University's Graduate Thesis Toolkit Copyright © 2021 by McMaster University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Faculty of Science

Office of undergraduate research, research-based courses.

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) aims to cultivate a passion for research in students during their time as an undergraduate scholar in the Faculty of Science and help expose them to opportunities to develop vital research skills for future ventures. There are a number of experiential education and research-based courses offered by several departments in the Faculty of Science for students to tailor their undergraduate journey to include these experiences.

The following are the different types of research-based courses offered by the departments in the Faculty of Science:

Explore the different research-based courses offered by the various departments and schools in the Faculty of Science below.

Faculty of Science Departments & Schools

Department Contact

Undergraduate Academic Program Assistant – Tyler Charlebois ( [email protected] )

To explore more, visit Experiential Opportunities – Department of Biology .

Chemistry & Chemical Biology

Department Contacts

Undergraduate Academic Program Advisors – Sarra Saiyed ( [email protected] ) & Linda Spruce ( [email protected] )

Earth, Environment & Society

Academic Program Advisor – Caitlyn Gabacort ( [email protected] )

Life Sciences (Interdisciplinary Sciences)

Experiential Education Coordinator – Sunita Nadella ( [email protected] )

Academic Program Advisor – Kai Wen ( [email protected] )

To explore more, visit Research-Based Learning – School of Interdisciplinary Science & Work-Integrated Learning – School of Interdisciplinary Science .

Kinesiology

Academic Program Advisor – Katelyn McKay ( [email protected] )

2024 Senior Thesis Projects

To explore more, visit Experiential Learning Courses – Department of Kinesiology .

Mathematics & Statistics

Academic Program Advisors – Rabia Awan ( [email protected] ) & Paula Marcoux ( [email protected] )

To explore more, visit Opportunities for Undergraduate Research – Department of Mathematics & Statistics .

Physics & Astronomy

Administrative Coordinator – James Smithson ( [email protected] )

To explore more, visit Upper Year Research Projects and Experiential Courses – Department of Physics & Astronomy .

Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour

Academic Program Advisor – Jennifer Nettleton ( [email protected] )

Undergraduate Admin Assistant – Taylor Bowker ( [email protected] )

To explore more, visit Research Information for Undergraduates – Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour &  Thesis and Independent Study Ballot – Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour .

Science Courses (open to all programs)

The following courses are offered for students whose departments do not have specific experiential education courses available.

To explore more, visit Experiential Education – Science Career & Cooperative Education .

Faculty of Science

Department of chemistry & chemical biology, chemistry phd. (transfer).

If you are looking for information on how to transfer into the PhD program from the MSc, click here.

Degree Requirements

• All remaining requirements for the MSc must be completed within one year of starting in the PhD program.
• No additional courses
• Comprehensive Exam
• Departmental Seminar
• Thesis embodying original research

Course Requirements

• Transfer PhD students are not required to take any further courses
• It is possible to get permission to count courses outside of the CHEM program toward your degree.  You will need to fill in a  Request for In-Program Course Adjustments Form  and obtain signatures from your supervisor and the Graduate Chair. Return the completed form to  [email protected] .
• For graduate students, the minimum passing grade for any module or course is B-.
• In all cases, additional courses beyond the minimum requirement may be recommended by the supervisory committee.

The Colloquium

All graduate students are expected to attend departmental seminars and colloquia regularly.

MSc and direct-entry PhD students are required to present a departmental colloquium on their research progress in their second year of study. Chemistry Graduate Colloquium Day is typically held at the end of Winter term each year (in exceptional cases, there may also be an opportunity to deliver your colloquium presentation in the Fall term).  Talks are usually 25 minutes including time for questions. The Colloquium Coordinator will communicate with students earlier in the term to request a title and abstract and will let you know the schedule of presenters.  For examples of past colloquium talks and abstracts see the program from  Spring 2021  and  Fall 2021 .

How To Have A PhD Supervisory Committee Meeting

Note: this is an email-based process; there are no paper/pdf forms or signatures required.

• Confirm the date and time of your committee meeting with your advisory committee members. Please note: if the committee meeting will take place virtually, it is the student’s responsibility to set up the videoconference.
• Email the grad admin ( [email protected] ) to let them know that you want to have a committee meeting at least one week before your scheduled meeting.
• You will receive an email link for an online committee report – fill in the top portion of this form and submit one week before your meeting.
• Your supervisor and committee members will all receive an email link in order to access this form during the committee meeting.
• Once your supervisor and committee members submit their portion of the form, you will receive an email link asking you to review the report.
• Once you approve it, the system will send it to the graduate chair for approval.
• Once they submit their approval, the process is complete – you have had a committee meeting!

Expandable List

Guidelines for phd supervisory committees and committee meetings.

The PhD supervisory committee consists of the supervisor and two other faculty members. For students who transferred into the PhD program from the MSc program, this committee is typically the same as the examining committee from the transfer exam. These faculty members are usually, but not necessarily, from within the Department, and additional members may be added at the discretion of the Department.

The guidelines for supervision can be found in  Section 3.31  of the Graduate Calendar.  In general, the role of the the PhD supervisory committee will be:

• to assist in planning and to approve the student’s program of courses and research;
• to approve the thesis proposal;
• to decide, within departmental regulations, on the timing of the comprehensive examination and, where applicable, of the language and other examinations;
• to maintain knowledge of the student’s research activities and progress;
• to give advice on research, usually through the student’s supervisor;
• to provide the student with regular appraisals of progress or lack of it;
• to perform such other duties as may be required by the department;
• to report on the above matters annually, in writing, on the approved form to the department, which in turn will report to the Faculty Graduate Committee on Admissions and Study;
• to initiate appropriate action if the student’s progress is unsatisfactory (indicated by a grade of marginal or unsatisfactory in a committee meeting), including any recommendation that the student withdraw, for approval by the department and the Faculty Committee on Graduate Admissions and Study;
• to decide when the student is to write the thesis and give advice during this process;
• to act as internal examiners for the student’s thesis;
• to act as members of the examination committee for the final oral when so appointed.

The PhD supervisory committee must meet at least once per year, before November 30th, to review the student’s progress.  It is the joint responsibility of both the supervisor and student to ensure that supervisory committee meetings take place at the proper times. With respect to the timing of PhD committee meetings, important points are:

• For students with a January or May start date , a PhD committee meeting must be completed before November 30th of the same year (even if you had an M.Sc. committee meeting and/or transfer exam within this time period – this is a regulation from graduate studies).
• For students with a September start date , a PhD meeting must be completed before November 30th of the following year, but an earlier meeting is strongly encouraged.
• Please note that ~$8,000 of your PhD funding will not be transferred from grad studies to our department if your PhD committee meeting does not happen before the end of November each year, so it is very important that students and supervisors ensure that this happens!More frequent meetings may be held at the student’s or committee’s request.

All PhD committee meetings will involve an oral presentation detailing progress and results since the last meeting (or transfer meeting), accompanied by questions from committee members and discussion of the results and future directions.

The exact format of reports or documentation required for a meeting may vary between research groups. Check with your supervisor before your first PhD meeting. Most committees will require a written report of progress, results, and future work. This must be delivered to the committee members at least one week before the meeting. Some committees may only require a hard copy of the slides from the oral presentation, also delivered to the committee members one week before the meeting. In all cases, any publications or drafts of publications since the last meeting should be appended to the report. Students are strongly encouraged to write up completed work continuously throughout their studies rather than waiting to write everything in the thesis at the end of their studies. Please include a summary page at the beginning of your report.

On the report, each committee member must indicate whether the progress made by the student has been excellent, good, satisfactory, marginal or unsatisfactory. If an unsatisfactory grade is given by any member of the supervisory committee, another committee meeting must be held within three to six months to re-assess the student’s progress. A specific course of action will be recommended to help ensure a satisfactory result at the next meeting. The Associate Chair may be invited to attend this meeting (as a non-voting member) at the invitation of either the student or the supervisor.

If progress is deemed to be unsatisfactory (based on a rating of unsatisfactory or marginal by all committee members in a committee meeting), the supervisor will confer with the Associate Chair (Graduate Chemistry) and/or the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies (Science) to decide what further course of action to take, which could include asking the student to withdraw from the program. In all cases, a student will be asked to withdraw from the program if progress is deemed to be unsatisfactory (as determined by unanimous unsatisfactory or marginal supervisory committee ratings) at two consecutive supervisory committee meetings.

Comprehensive Exams

The comprehensive examination provides practice in developing and defending new research ideas and is designed to foster creative and broad critical thinking. It involves a literature review and research proposal, and its discussion in a broader context. All comprehensive examinations are required to occur by the end of the second year of PhD studies. Fall term comprehensive exams will take advantage of McMaster Reading Week in October (no classes or TAing) while Winter term exams take advantage of McMaster Reading Week in February (no classes or TAing).

Choosing A Topic

The scope of proposal must be significantly different from the immediate research project being carried out by the student but can be within the same general field. For example, a student in an organic synthetic group can propose to do a synthesis of a natural product. However, the methodology required should be different than what the student is using in their research.

Graduate students learn to discuss new research ideas throughout their studies. For example, your supervisory committee meetings are good places to learn how to generate and discuss ideas, and to become familiar with the fundamental concepts in your area of research. The “comp” is just one more opportunity to do this, and also provides good practice for your thesis defense.

Ideas for proposals often come from current literature or seminars, or may be extensions of your current research or course work (but not too closely related). Sometimes it helps to ask yourself what you might like to work on in a new post-doctoral, industrial or faculty position. Proposals may involve the preparation of new compounds, the study of reaction mechanisms, or the design of new ways to measure or predict compositions and properties. Your supervisor will work with you to identify and define two suitable proposal topics. Your two topic outlines should convey the scientific questions, and your excitement about pursuing them.

You should strive to challenge yourself by choosing a topic that you are interested in but know little about:

• this enhances your learning experience
• if your topic is too close to your research, the supervisory committee will be familiar with it and will ask harder questions!

Topic Proposal

In consultation with your supervisor, you must come up with 2 viable topics for your comprehensive exam. The 2 topics should be provided to your committee 2 weeks prior to the start of the exam. Topic outlines are 1-page documents that provide 1-2 paragraphs about the topic, as well as a brief description of the direction the proposal will take. Each outline should include ~5 leading references.

The examining committee (PhD supervisory committee) will look at the two topics and will choose one for you to do.

Timing Of The Comprehensive Exam Process

• On the first day of the exam (5 weeks before the scheduled oral exam date), you will receive an email from the Grad Chair letting you know which topic the committee has chosen.
• You have 2 weeks to provide a rough draft of the document, which will be reviewed by the committee. Within a week, the committee will provide recommendations about things to focus on in the final document.
• You will have 1 more week to complete and polish the document (sometimes an extension of 1-3 days is given if extensive revisions are needed).
• The final document must be submitted 1 week before the scheduled oral exam date.

Sample Timetable

The Document

A 20-page document (double spaced, not including figures, references, or title page) will be submitted at the end of the 4-week exam period. This document should contain the following:

• A 10-page review of the field that provides an overview of what has been done, and what are the problems that remain unsolved, the central questions that are still outstanding or the areas that remain unexplored.
• A 10-page proposal that details the original research you want to do in the proposed field.

Your proposal should include a clear statement of the driving hypothesis that you plan to test, the aims of the proposal, and a discussion of the experimental plan designed to test your hypothesis.  In terms of the scope of the proposal, you should pretend that you are a starting professor or a new employee at a company and need to employ 1-3 people for ~5 years with your ideas, e. g. include a Gantt table outlining who does what and when.  The experimental plan should include an explanation of the key methodologies as well as positive and negative controls and problem mitigation plans.

You need to propose a hypothesis or an idea that is:

• Novel (has not been done before)
• Justifiable (you should be able to convince your committee that the research is worthy of taxpayer’s or company’s money – i.e. it will yield results of scientific interest/value)
• Feasible (you are qualified to carry out the research, you are familiar with what is needed to succeed, and the research has a reasonable chance of success)

You should expect to read dozens of papers on the topic (much of the literature review should be done as part of initial preparation of the two topics).

The document should be on 8.5″ × 11″ pages, double-spaced, using 12 pt. font (Times New Roman is preferable), with margins set at a minimum of ¾ inches (1.87 cm), and pages numbered sequentially.

The Oral Exam

The actual exam consists of a 15-20 minute presentation by the student, giving an overview of the field and a description of the proposed research. The presentation is followed by two rounds of questioning by the committee. Questions can be very broad in scope and will assume a sound understanding of undergraduate-level concepts. Typically, questions start with something related to the comprehensive topic and submitted document but can then extend to fundamental concepts that the student is expected to know.

At the end of the oral examination: the committee will deliberate briefly, and then provide the student with their decision and feedback. The possible outcomes are:

• Comprehensive exam passed
• Comprehensive exam passed, with some required course work or readings
• Retake oral part only, within 2 months
• Retake entire comprehensive exam, within 2 months.

The PhD Seminar

PhD students must present their research in a departmental seminar (50 minutes including questions) during their final year of study before defending their thesis.  The timing of this seminar is up to you and your supervisor, whether that’s weeks or months before you defend.

The department seminar slot is currently Thursdays 1:30-2:30pm.  When you know which date you would like to present, contact the Grad Admin ( [email protected] ) to reserve your slot.  This slot is also used for seminars presented by department faculty and external speakers, so be sure to book a date well in advance to ensure you get the one you want. You can see which dates are available by checking the calendar linked below.  To book your seminar on a different date or at a different time, contact the Grad Admin ( [email protected] ).

Seminar Calendar

Phd thesis defence.

Students should consult the  Guide for the Preparation of Masters and Doctoral Theses  and the helpful guidance on the  Completing your Doctoral Degree – Thesis site . These explain the style and format preferred by the School of Graduate Studies.  An archive of MSc and PhD theses from McMaster is available for download in PDF format on  MacSphere . You can also access a  list of MSc and PhD theses  from our department in reverse chronological order going back all the way to 1946.

Process For Completion Of The Doctoral Defence

• The student asks the supervisor for “permission to write” the thesis. This request is considered formally at a Supervisory Committee meeting, usually after the student has summarized his/her research. The majority of the committee must agree with the request. Permission to write indicates that the student has conducted sufficient research to justify preparation of a thesis. The Supervisory Committee may give conditional permission to write (i.e., permission to write after a defined list of experiments are complete).
• Drafts of chapters of the thesis should be provided to the supervisor for review and comments/corrections as thesis writing progresses. A first complete draft of the thesis document is also submitted to the supervisor for review and critical comments.
• Once the thesis is complete, the defence process must be initiated by the student electronically in Mosaic. After logging into Mosaic, navigate to your Student Centre and under the “My Academics” tab select ‘other academics’ and then select ‘Thesis Intent Defend my Thesis’ to initiate the process. At this point, you and your supervisor will be asked to select either the Standard Process (where SGS organizes all aspects of your defence; you must give at least 8 weeks notice for this process) or the Accelerated Process (your supervisor organizes all aspects of your defence and the timing is left up to you).
• If you have chosen the Standard Process, within the following week, your supervisor will suggest 3 possible external examiners, and your supervisory committee will have to approve this selection. From this list of recommended external examiners, SGS will contact one examiner and secure their agreement to read the thesis and provide a written report. If you have chosen the Accelerated Process, your supervisor completes all of these steps.
• After approximately 2 weeks, the candidate is required to submit an electronic copy of their thesis (pre-defence version) and to suggest a date for the thesis defence (in consultation with his/her committee members). In the remaining time before the defence, the examining committee will read the thesis and prepare questions and comments. The external examiner will also report back to the Dean of Graduate Studies whether or not the thesis is acceptable for defence. If it is acceptable, the School of Graduate Studies will confirm the date and time, and will arrange the location for the examination.
• In the Standard Process, the PhD defence is organized by the Thesis Coordinator in the School of Graduate Studies (if Accelerated, by your supervisor). The Examination Committee will consist of the supervisor, the Supervisory Committee members, the external examiner (if they wish to attend in person or virtually; if not, an internal external examiner – a McMaster faculty member from outside of the department – will typically take their place) and the Examination Chair.
• A PhD Examination Chair, representing the Dean of Graduate Studies, will oversee the PhD defence; the Examination Chair does not read or evaluate the thesis and does not have voting privileges. The examination is open to the public. The chair will usually start the defence by asking all persons except the Examination Committee to leave the room, in order to discuss the format of the examination and the responsibilities of the examiners. The examination will consist of an oral presentation (15 – 20 minutes) by the student, followed by a series of questions asked by the members of the Examination Committee in turn. Any questions posed by an external examiner unable to attend the examination will be asked by either the supervisor or the Chair in proxy. The defence should not normally exceed two hours in duration. At the end of the defence, the Examination Committee will consider their verdict in closed session. The Chair will then call the student into the room to give the committee’s decision.
• At the conclusion of the defence, the committee will let the student know whether any revisions and corrections are required.  In addition to making the final edits to their paper, students must complete three forms:  1) the  Final Thesis Defence Sheet , 2) the  Licence to McMaster University , 3) the  Non-Exclusive Dissertation Licence .  All of these should be returned the Grad Admin ( [email protected] ) as soon as they are complete.
• As the final step, the student submits the corrected thesis to the School of Graduate Studies by uploading to  MacSphere  (instructions on how to do so can be found  here ). The PhD degree will be awarded on receipt of the thesis; students are considered to have completed their degrees as of the date of upload to MacSphere (this is the same date that McMaster stops charging tuition).

Timelines For Degree Completion: Chemistry PhD, Transfer

*your clock starts with the term in which you transfer took effect

Transfer Effective Fall Term

Download a printable copy

Transfer Effective Winter Term

Transfer Effective Spring Term

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Dissertations & Theses @ McMaster University

Access is available on and off campus to current McMaster University students, faculty and staff.

Contains citations & abstracts of all McMaster theses submitted to UMI Dissertation Publishing up to 2011. Authorized McMaster users can download full-text PDF versions (if available) of dissertations and theses published by McMaster students, 1970-1996.

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How Do I Find Theses & Dissertations?

• Theses & Dissertations @ McMaster

McMaster Theses & Dissertations

• Borrowing Theses & Dissertations

Find McMaster Theses in the Library Catalogue

Location of theses, borrowing theses, author search using a personal name, author search using a mcmaster university department, things to remember when performing departmental searches, subject search using library of congress subject headings (lcsh), subject search using medical subject headings (mesh), call number.

McMaster theses in all formats (print, microfiche or online) are listed in McMaster's  library catalogue . Theses can be searched by title, author (personal name or department), subject (LCSH or MeSH), keyword(s) or call number.

McMaster theses are located in various areas of  MILLS (Humanities and Social Sciences),  INNIS  (Business),  THODE  (Science and Engineering) and  HEALTH SCIENCES  libraries. The library and location of a particular McMaster thesis will be noted in the library catalogue. Theses available online can be accessed by clicking on the link in the library catalogue record.

McMaster theses in print format can be borrowed with a valid McMaster identification card (e.g. faculty, staff, current students, external borrowers, etc.). The availability or circulation status (e.g. checked out) of a thesis will be noted in the library catalogue.

ALL McMaster theses are searchable by the title of the thesis. If you know the exact title of a thesis, or  some  of the words in the title, use one of the  Title  indexes in the library catalogue.

NOTE: To ensure that you have retrieved a thesis in your search results, view the full details and look for the words  Thesis--McMaster University  in the NOTES.

ALL McMaster theses are searchable by the personal name of the author. If you know the proper name of the author, use the  Author  index in the library catalogue.

SOME McMaster theses can be searched using MCMASTER UNIVERSITY and the department within which the degree program was offered as an author.

To browse through a list of departments, select the  Author  index in the library catalogue and type MCMASTER UNIVERSITY DEPT OF. This search strategy will result in a list of McMaster departments with thesis entries.

Department vs. Degree

It is important to distinguish between a department and the degree program. For example, the department of Classics has offered graduate programs in Classics, Classical Studies, Greek, Latin and Roman Studies. If you were looking for a thesis completed by a student who received a Master in Classical Studies, the appropriate department would be the Department of Classics.

Department Missing

Not all McMaster theses are searchable by department. In some libraries, it was not until ca. 1991 that it became mandatory to have the McMaster department as a searchable field. This means that in Mills, Innis and Thode libraries, all theses written from  1990 to the present , and all theses written  prior to 1983  (since this latter category was entered into the Library Catalogue beginning in September 1991), can be searched by department. However, most theses written  between 1983 and 1989  cannot be accessed in this type of search.

Departmental Changes

It is also important to remember that some departments have changed over time. Departments may have split, merged or simply been renamed. When this occurred, the Library Catalogue provides  See also:  or  Related author references directing you to other relevant departments you may wish to search.

If you are unable to locate a McMaster department using the  Author  index, try entering MCMASTER along with a word that describes a field of study in the  Author  index.

SOME McMaster theses can be searched using subject headings. In   MILLS ,  INNIS  and  THODE  libraries, Master and PhD. theses from  1983 to the present  have been assigned  Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and/or subject keywords.

• All Bachelor theses and most Master and Ph.D theses  before 1983  have only been assigned the generic subject heading MCMASTER UNIVERSITY DISSERTATIONS.
• Theses from  1983 to 2000  have been assigned both the generic subject heading and LCSH.
• Theses from  2001 onward  have been assigned LCSH and/or subject keywords.

In the  HEALTH SCIENCES   library, theses have been assigned  Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) .

NOTE: Many health sciences theses have also been assigned the generic medical subject heading DISSERTATIONS ACADEMIC MCMASTER UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES  

If you do NOT know the EXACT Library of Congress or Medical Subject Headings for your topic, try the  Subject  index in the library catalogue.

NOTE: To ensure that you have retrieved a thesis in your search results, view the full details and look for the words  Thesis --McMaster University  in the NOTES field.

If you are unable to locate a thesis using the  Title ,  Author , and  Subject  indexes in the library catalogue, select the  Keyword  index and enter the words MCMASTER and THESIS along with any information you might have about the thesis (e.g., word(s), date(s), department(s), author(s)).

To combine search words, try the  Advanced Search  in the library catalogue. 

Most McMaster theses are searchable by their call numbers in the library catalogue. Theses may have two types of call numbers. All McMaster Master and Ph.D. theses that have been fully catalogued have full  Library of Congress (LC)  or National Library of Medicine (NLM) call numbers such as WK 815 .N162a 2003. Use the  Search for words: in Standard No./Call No.  or  Search begins with ... Call Number- LC/NLM  indexes in the library catalogue.

All Bachelors theses and most Master and some Ph.D. theses before 1983 and after 2004 have short call numbers such as THESIS GN 968149. For short call numbers, a call number search must be prefaced with the word THESIS plus the call number. Use the  Search for words: in Standard/Call No.  or  Search begins with ... Call Number - Local  indexes in the library catalogue.

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Faculty of Science

Radiation sciences graduate program, thesis defences, masters thesis/project.

Examination Committee

The thesis will be examined by a committee of not fewer than three members (including the supervisor and an examiner external to the supervisory committee) who will be appointed by the Department/Program Chair. The thesis will be defended by the candidate in an oral examination before this committee. The Associate Vice-President & Dean of Graduate Studies may appoint members to these committees. The time of the defense will be set by the Department/Program chair; normally this will be about two weeks after the completed thesis has been submitted to the Department for examination.

Masters Thesis or Project Submission

The Masters thesis or project should be prepared according to the School of Graduate Studies’ Guide for the Preparation of Theses . The full and complete thesis or project should be approved for submission by the candidate’s supervisor prior to submission to the examination committee. To meet the requirements for a Master’s degree, the thesis or project must be submitted in electronic form or as a hardcopy prior to the defense by the student. It must be delivered to his/her department no later than the date specified in the Sessional Dates for the degree to be recognized at the appropriate convocation. Sessional Dates are found in the School of Graduate Studies Calendar.

It is the responsibility of the candidate and supervisor to schedule the defence date and time. The oral defence will normally be scheduled at least two weeks after submission of the document and must be scheduled no later than two months after submission. The candidate should inform the Graduate Secretary of the department or program of the intended defence date and time in order to book a defence room and prepare the paperwork.

Oral Defence

The defence consists of a short (15-20 minutes) presentation by the student of the rationale, findings and contributions of the research. This is followed by questions from all members of the Committee based on the thesis research. The examination should last no more than two hours. The defence is a public examination. Audience members are welcome to observe the oral presentation and questioning; however, they may leave the examination room after the initial presentation. Questions from the public audience may be allowed at the end of the examination, time permitting. Judgement

At the end of the oral defence the candidate and the audience will leave the examination room. The Committee will make separate judgements on the written thesis or project and the oral defence by majority vote. Possible judgements on the written thesis are:

• Pass as submitted or subject to minor revision only.
• Resubmit after major revision possibly requiring a second defence.

On the oral defence, the possible judgements are:

• Unsatisfactory requiring adjournment and a second oral defence scheduled within one month.

In the event that either the re-submitted thesis or project or the second oral defence are judged unsatisfactory, the student fails.

After a successful defense, the Chair of the Examination Committee will inform the student of thesis changes required by the examiners. The Chair will initial and give the student a form [entitled Final Thesis Submission Sheet] indicating whether minor or major changes are required to the thesis. After all changes have been made, the student must submit this completed form to the School of Graduate Studies for his Final Submission to be published to Digital Commons.

The regulation of a PhD Thesis is covered in the School of Graduate Studies Calendar under section 4.4.

The School of Graduate Studies has outlined the PhD Thesis Defense Timeline . Further, please see the Guidelines for preparing your PhD thesis at the School of Graduate Studies website .

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